Loaded Baked Mashed Potatoes Recipe

This Loaded Baked Mashed Potatoes recipe is a cheesy, delicious side dish suitable for holiday or family dinners throughout the year. It’s loaded with plenty of cheese, bacon, and roasted garlic for comforting goodness in every bite!

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Mashed potatoes are one of my top favorite foods. Big surprise, right? I mean, I know I’m not the only one. They are a total comfort food for me. I’m also not picky on how I have them. A touch of butter and some salt and pepper is very nice. Adding some roasted garlic and cheese is extra nice.

As a teen, one of my favorite lunches was some instant mashed potatoes. If we had cheese slices, I would cook up the potatoes and press a slice of cheese on top and let is sit for a few minutes so it would semi-melt. Then I would mix it all into the potatoes. Of course, this worked well too if there was some leftover mashed potatoes in the fridge, but that was less common.

These Loaded Baked Mashed Potatoes are my way yummier version of my teenage lunch. This isn’t health food…if you want that, you’ll want to move along. Loaded means loaded with delicious goodness like butter, cream cheese, and sour cream. We don’t have this side dish very often, but when we do it’s a special occasion. Everyone goes crazy for it.

While I love the cheese and all, I think the star of this mashed potato side dish is the roasted garlic. I’m so crazy about roasted garlic and even my former garlic-hating husband loves it.

The potatoes, garlic, cheese, sour cream, butter, and cream cheese are all mashed up together, placed in a baking dish, and topped with more Cheddar cheese.

Oh, and I have to share my love of my azure blue Emile Henry casserole pan. I love it so much. I won it back in 2010 in a blog giveaway on La Fuji Mama’s blog. Back then, I had never even heard of Emile Henry cookware, but now? I’m a total fan. It’s so durable, easy to clean, and everything bakes beautifully in it.

Ok, back to the Loaded Baked Mashed Potatoes recipe — if you are feeling crazy, you can also top with some bacon and sliced green onions like I do. It’s baked in the oven until perfection.

Loaded Baked Mashed Potatoes Recipe

Here is the full recipe for this Loaded Baked Mashed Potatoes recipe, all ready for you to print. Not ready for it yet? Be sure to save it to one of your Pinterest boards for safe keeping.

Loaded Baked Mashed Potatoes

5 lbs russet potatoes (skin peeled & cut into chunks)

2 heads garlic

Olive oil

1/2 cup butter (1 stick, cut into pieces)

8 ounces cream cheese (cut into pieces)

1/2 cup sour cream

3 cups Cheddar cheese (shredded and divided)

1/2 cup milk (more or less)

Salt & pepper (to taste)

Optional toppings: real bacon pieces and sliced green onions

Place potatoes in a large pot, cover with water, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until potatoes are tender. Drain well and return potatoes to pot.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Cut off the top quarter of the garlic head and set garlic head, cut side up, on top of a piece of foil that is large enough to wrap around the entire garlic head.

Drizzle the top (cut area) with olive oil. Wrap foil around the garlic head. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until garlic cloves are very tender and soft. Carefully unwrap garlic head. Squeeze out roasted garlic or use a small knife tip or fork to “pop” out the cloves. Set aside roasted garlic and discard skins.

With potato masher, mash potatoes well. Then mash inbutter, cream cheese, sour cream, roasted garlic, and 2 cups of Cheddar cheese until all ingredients are combined with the potatoes. If needed, mix in some milk to ensure that mixture is smooth and creamy. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Spray a baking dish (approx 13×9″) with cooking spray. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spoon loaded mashed potatoes into baking dish. Top with remaining Cheddar cheese. If desired, top with sliced green onions and bacon. Cover with foil and bake for about 15-20 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking until until cheese is melted and top begins to brown.

Instructions

Place potatoes in a large pot, cover with water, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until potatoes are tender. Drain well and return potatoes to pot.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Cut off the top quarter of the garlic head and set garlic head, cut side up, on top of a piece of foil that is large enough to wrap around the entire garlic head.

Drizzle the top (cut area) with olive oil. Wrap foil around the garlic head. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until garlic cloves are very tender and soft. Carefully unwrap garlic head. Squeeze out roasted garlic or use a small knife tip or fork to “pop” out the cloves. Set aside roasted garlic and discard skins.

With potato masher, mash potatoes well. Then mash inbutter, cream cheese, sour cream, roasted garlic, and 2 cups of Cheddar cheese until all ingredients are combined with the potatoes. If needed, mix in some milk to ensure that mixture is smooth and creamy. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Spray a baking dish (approx 13×9″) with cooking spray. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spoon loaded mashed potatoes into baking dish. Top with remaining Cheddar cheese. If desired, top with sliced green onions and bacon. Cover with foil and bake for about 15-20 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking until until cheese is melted and top begins to brown.

Yes, the recipe is correct. It uses 2 heads of garlic, not 2 cloves of garlic (which would be hardly noticeable with 5 pounds of potatoes). You’re welcome to reduce the garlic if you would prefer less.

Brandie, what a coincidence! I was just over at Inside BruCrew linking up to her party, and saw these potatoes featured and my jaw dropped because they look SO GOOD. I looked to see what blog they were from, and saw that it was your blog that you just told me about on our Hangout today! Too funny! These look incredible! I sooo wish I had them in front of me right now instead of a boring ol’ hamburger.

Your Loaded Baked Mashed Potatoes look wonderful, we will just love them. Thanks so much for sharing your great recipe with Full Plate Thursday and enjoy your Thanksgiving week!
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Miz Helen

Yum, yum, and yum. I’m with you on the mashed potato love. I love the way your full casserole dish looks loaded with your delicious potatoes. I can hardly wait to make them. Would you be willing to share this recipe post and any of your other great ones at our Making Monday link party? We would love it and think our readers will, too. Thanks. Have a fantastic day. http://www.abrightandbeautifullife.com/making-monday-14/

Hi Claudia,
Thanks for asking! The roasted garlic will be added when you mash in the rest of the ingredients. While I mentioned it in the text of the post, I failed to list it in the final recipe. Hope that helps!

[…] All of that is mashed up, placed in a baking dish, and topped with more Cheddar cheese, bacon, and sliced green onions before you put it in the oven. You can get the full recipe here: Loaded Baked Mashed Potatoes […]